Computer systems programmed to perform condition-based methods of directing electronic profile-based advertisements for display in ad space

ABSTRACT

An automatic system facilitates selection of media properties on which to display an advertisement, responsive to a profile collected on a first media property, where a behavioral-targeting company calculates expected profit for an ad correlated with the profile and arranges for the visitor to be tagged with a tag readable by the selected media property. The profit can be calculated by deducting, from the revenues that are expected to be generated from an ad delivered based on the collected profile, at least the price of ad space at a media property where the BT company might like to deliver ads to the profiled visitor. When the calculated profit is positive (i.e., not a loss), the BT company arranges for the visitor to be tagged with a tag readable by the selected media property through which the BT company expects to profit.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 17/714,936,filed Apr. 6, 2022, now U.S. Pat. No. 11,610,226, which is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 17/097,865, filed Nov. 13, 2020,now U.S. Pat. No. 11,301,898, which is a continuation of applicationSer. No. 16/678,196, filed Nov. 8, 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,839,423,which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 16/194,203, filed Nov.16, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,475,073, which is a continuation ofapplication Ser. No. 15/822,974, filed Nov. 27, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No.10,134,054, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 15/360,762,filed Nov. 23, 2016, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,830,615, which is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 14/960,237, filed Dec. 4, 2015, nowU.S. Pat. No. 9,508,089, which is a continuation of application Ser. No.14/620,502, filed Feb. 12, 2015, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,208,514 which is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 14/201,494, filed Mar. 7, 2014, nowU.S. Pat. No. 8,959,146, which is a continuation of application Ser. No.13/491,454, filed Jun. 7, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,671,139, which is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 12/823,709, filed Jun. 25, 2010,now U.S. Pat. No. 8,204,783, which is a continuation of application Ser.No. 11/763,286, filed Jun. 14, 2007, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,745, whichclaims the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 60/804,937, filedJun. 16, 2006, and provisional application Ser. No. 60/805,119, filedJun. 19, 2006, which are herein incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to profile-based behavioraltargeting advertisement placement methods. More specifically, thepresent invention relates to electronic advertisement placement based onexpected profit from the placement.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

DoubleClick's “Boomerang” is a service for advertisers that places acookie on computers of visitors to an advertiser's site for the purposeof finding those visitors on other sites where DoubleClick is the adserver (“ad” is short for advertisement). When the same visitors arefound on those other sites, additional advertiser's ads are served tothem by the DoubleClick ad sever or by the advertiser's ad serverfollowing a redirect from the DoubleClick ad server.

The only server that can read a cookie on a user's computer is a serveroperating under the same domain as the server that placed the cookie ona user's computer to begin with. In other words, a cookie placed by aserver operating under one domain cannot be read by another serverworking under a separate domain. That is why the advertiser cannotexpect to place a cookie of its own (e.g., ford.com cookie) on a visitorto its site and then later expect the DoubleClick ad server(doubleclick.com) to be able to recognize the visitor when that visitoris visiting sites where DoubleClick serves ads by reading the ford.comcookies. Only a server operating under the DoubleClick domain can read acookie placed by a server operating under the DoubleClick domain. So,DoubleClick needs to place a doubleclick.com cookie on visitors to theford.com site for DoubleClick to later find those visitors within othersites, i.e., where the DoubleClick ad server is used to serve ads.

For a site to have its ad served by an ASP-hosted ad server, such as theone operated by DoubleClick, the site needs to redirect visitors fromthe site to the DoubleClick ad server, to fetch the ad from the server.Following the redirect from the site, the visitor accesses theDoubleClick ad server. Because the DoubleClick server is operating underthe DoubleClick domain, it can read the DoubleClick cookie or cookiesand then recognize that it encountered the same visitor in the past. Inthis example, the DoubleClick ad server recognizes the visitor assomeone who visited the ford.com site.

AlmondNet, Tacoda, RevenueScience, and other companies (herein “BTcompanies”; “BT” stands for behavioral targeting) specialize intargeting ads based on observed behavior of sites' visitors. BTcompanies place a cookie (or cookies) on the computers of visitors tospecific sections of a publisher's website or on the computers ofvisitors of the publisher who conducted a specific action such assearch, click content, click an ad, request information, acquire aproduct, etc.

The placement of cookies allows those publishers or the BT companyitself to sell ads to advertisers. Those ads will be presented to thevisitors when they are found later on the same site or on other sites.Such sites can be either a site where the BT company's software is usedor a site where the BT company has bought media. The BT company may buythe media on behalf of itself or on behalf of the publisher, who isinterested in delivering ads to its audience outside the publisher'ssite.

Although a BT company (AlmondNet, Tacoda, RevenueScience, etc.) acts asan agent that places cookies on the computers of publisher's visitorsfor the purpose of delivering targeted ads to the publisher's visitorson other sites, the publisher can work without an agent and placecookies or tags on the computers of the publisher's own visitors for thepurpose of delivering ads to those visitors on other sites where thepublisher buys ad space. Such a publisher, acting without an agent, isalso included in the definition of a BT company.

A publisher may also be referred to as a “profile supplier” when ittransfers profile information, such as behavioral information,demographic information, etc., to a BT company. Therefore, a publisherthat is a BT company may also be its own profile supplier. Furthermore,although the name “BT company” implies the targeting of ads is based oncollected behavioral profiles, a BT company may also collect other kindsof profile information, such as demographic information or user-providedinformation, and target ads to those visitors wherever found based onthe collected profile information.

Another kind of a BT company is a company that has software installed ona person's computer, such as toolbar software, desktop search software,weather software, or any kind of software that is used by the computer'suser. Such software also monitors the computer user's visits todifferent publishers' sites and media properties and collects profileinformation about the computer user for the purpose of delivering ads tothe user within ad space of sites and media properties that the uservisits based on the collected profiles.

A BT company using software installed on a user's computer does not needthe cooperation of a visited media property to collect information aboutthe visitor's visit because that software monitors whatever the user isdoing on his or her computer. A BT company that has software installedon a user's computer is therefore its own profile supplier. Suchsoftware can place a cookie or another kind of tag on the user'scomputer. Because the software is installed on the user's computer, itcan write cookies readable by any domain. That means that the BT companycan place a tag or cookie of a second media property, if the BT companywould like the second media property to recognize the visitor when thevisitor visits that second media property site, by simply having thesoftware place a cookie operating under the domain of the secondproperty on the visitor's computer. The software may also report thecollected profiles to a central server of the BT company.

The central server may also tag the visitor or arrange for the visitorto be tagged by operators of other media properties. A BT company canplace a cookie on a site's section when a visitor's computer visits thatsection, if a code of the company was integrated into the page of thatsection by the site that owns the page. The code (e.g., HTML or Java)redirects to the BT company's server all visitors to the page. Also, inthe case that the BT company is the publisher itself, the publisher willsimply “cookie” (by itself) all visitors that either read a specificcontent, search, click, ask for information, make a phone call, etc.

The BT company's server, which either gave the site a unique code for apage, received from the page its URL, or received access to the page'scontent that could be analyzed by the BT company's server, etc.,identifies the content read by the page's visitor or the keywordsearched for by the user, or an ad clicked on the page, etc. The contentread by the page visitor could be identified by the BT company's serverwhether the content was reported by the site or whether the content wasidentified following the analysis of the page. The server then places acookie on the user's computer indicating what content was read by thevisitor on the page, what keyword was searched for by the user, or whatad was clicked on the page, etc. The placed cookie indicates thatinformation (1) in the cookie per se, (2) in a central database operatedby the server where the cookie ID is used as a record finder, or (3)both in the cookie and in the database.

Although the above description relates to cookies, a cookie is only oneexample of a possible tag. A tag generally is a unique identifier usedto mark a person electronically visiting a media property, such as a website, TV channel, radio show, or the like, using a computer, a mobiledevice, a TV set, a TV set top box, or any other device.

The tag is used for the purpose of delivering additional ads to avisitor to one media property when that visitor is found later on othermedia properties, based on the visitor's profile collected on the firstmedia property. The profile could be the observed behavior of thevisitor on the media property, demographic information collected on themedia property, profile information provided by the visitor to the mediaproperty, etc.

Because the purpose of the tag is to enable the delivery of additionalads on other media properties visited by the visitor, and because thedelivery of an ad requires only control of the ad space and notnecessarily control of the entire media property visited by the visitor,a media property (in the present context) can also be defined as anyequipment that controls an ad space viewed by a visitor, including a website, an ad network's site (where the ad network represents the ad spaceof different sites), a TV program, some of the ad space within TVprograms or TV channels (represented by a cable company), a TV network,or any ad space for which an entity is allowed to sell an advertisementand deliver it within the ad space; whether the ad space is owned bythat entity, or whether the entity pays the owner of the ad space whenusing its ad space to deliver an ad sold by the entity. Ad space can beon a web site, in a TV program, in a text message, in a radio show, inany broadcasted material, in any streaming video or audio, etc. An adspace can be a fixed position on a page, or the ad space can be madeavailable by a web site to an ad network (for example) only when the website did not sell all of the site's ad inventory and therefore wishes tomake some of the inventory available to the ad network.

In the case of a media property controlling an ad space viewed by avisitor, a specific ad space on a page might be controlled onlytemporarily. For example, in the case of the web site that did not sellall the ad impressions available to be delivered within an ad space on apage and therefore makes the unsold ad space available to the ad networkto fill, the ad network will have temporary control of the ad space,i.e., when that ad space is given to it by the web site. Once the siteredirects the ad space on the page to the ad network (so the ad networkcould fill the ad space with an ad sold by the ad network), the adnetwork controls the ad space and has access to the visitor viewing thead space that was redirected to the ad network by the site, andtherefore the ad network's equipment is considered a media property, asit controls an ad space viewed by a visitor.

The tag can be placed on the device used by the user to access the firstmedia property where the user's profile was collected (in case ofobserved behavior, that behavior can be reading a specific content,searching, clicking an ad or content, making a phone call, asking forproduct information, acquiring a product, or taking any other kind ofaction). A tag placed on the device (1) could be read only by a serveroperating under the same domain as the server that placed the tag on thedevice to begin with as in the case of a cookie for example, (2) couldbe placed on the device when the user visited the first media property,and then the tag can be read by any second media property visited by thevisitor, or (3) could be encrypted and, while accessed by any secondmedia property visited by the visitor, the tag could be deciphered onlyby second media property computers that received the deciphering codefrom the first media property. In case of a tag placed by softwareinstalled on a user's computer, the tag could be whatever the softwarewants it to be, including a cookie of any domain.

A tag does not have to be placed on the user's device. A tag can also beused in a central database of a BT company or a central database of anysecond media property visited by the visitor, where the tag could be aunique identifier either of the device or of the user. In the case wherethe tag identifies the device, the tag might denote an IP address, aphone number, a device's manufacturer serial number, etc. A cookieplaced on the device can also uniquely identify the device and thecookie therefore can be used as a tag in a central database. In the casewhere the tag identifies the user, the tag might denote the username andpassword used to access a media property, a user's name and address, auser's e-mail, a user's social security number, or any other personalidentifiable information.

As already mentioned, the observed behavior of a visitor to a firstmedia property is referred to as profile information about a specificvisitor. A visitor's profile might be enhanced by the visitors' observedbehavior on other media properties or by other profile informationcollected on other media properties.

A visitor's profile can be represented by a unique tag, or the profilecan be stored with the tag, whether the tag is placed on the device, ona central database, or both. For example, the profile can be storedwithin a cookie (tag) on a visitor's device, or the profile can bestored in a central database where the tag connected to the profile isused as a unique identifier of the visitor's device or of the visitorpersonally. The profile can also be saved on both the device and acentral database.

One of the major challenges in targeting a first site visitor on anothersite with an ad based on his observed behavior on sites visited by himpreviously (such as the first site) is actually finding the visitor onother sites.

Depending on the tag placed (or arranged to be placed) by the BTcompanies, the visitor could be recognized either by the entity thatplaced the tag to begin with (which requires access by that entity tothe tag when the visitor visits a second media property) or by thesecond media property reading the tag (in which case the tag can beplaced by the second media property if the BT company so arranges).

BT companies, acting as an agent, can find visitors tagged by them, whenthe tagged visitors are present on sites that use the BT companies'software (either to serve ads or in conjunction with those sites' adservers). BT companies (whether it is acting as an agent, is thepublisher itself, or is operating with any other BT company) can findvisitors tagged by them, when the visitors are present on sites and adnetworks where the BT companies buy media.

To make the process of finding people who visited a first media propertyon other media properties more efficient, BT companies enable sites andad networks (from whom the BT companies buy media) to also place theircookies on the computers of people (visitors) on whose computers the BTcompany has placed its own cookie. That technique is similar to the wayDoubleClick's Boomerang system places cookies on visitors to anadvertiser site for the purpose of finding those visitors later on othersites where Doubleclick serves ads.

An ad network ad server (or any other server of the ad network) or asite's ad server (or any other server of the site) can place their owncookies on the computers of visitors that are redirected to them by theBT companies, for the purpose of later recognizing those visitors withintheir own ad space (i.e., the ad space of the ad networks or the sites).

This process—where sites and ad networks place cookies on visitors'computers redirected to them by BT companies (or other entitiesinterested in additional ads presented to their audience elsewhere)—issometimes referred to as “cookie matching.”

For example, weather.com might place a weather.com cookie on a user'scomputer marking him or her as a visitor to BT company #1, following aredirect from ST company #1 server. Later, if and when the weather.comad server recognizes that the same visitor (previously redirected to himby BT company #1) happened to visit weather.com (weather.com willrecognize the visitor by reading its own weather.com cookie, whichmarked the visitor as a BT company #1 visitor), the weather.com adserver can, if it wishes, redirect the visitor's computer to the BTcompany #1 server, to have an ad served to the visitor, either by BTcompany #1's ad server or another ad server to which BT company #1 adserver further redirects the visitor. The weather.com ad server'sdecision, whether or not to redirect the visitor's computer to BTcompany #1's server can be based on the price that BT company #1promised to pay weather.com for the presentation of an ad withinweather.com's ad space, to a visitor previously redirected toweather.com by BT company #1's server.

Although the above-described processes enable a second media property torecognize a first media property visitor, it is still a very inefficientprocess for the following reasons:

-   -   (1) Media properties' ad space prices vary.    -   (2) Profiles of media properties' visitors are worth different        amounts to advertisers depending on the profiles. For example, a        person who searched for a “mortgage” on a search engine might be        presented with a mortgage-related ad, for which the advertiser        is willing to pay $3 if that person clicks on that ad. A person        who searched for “socks” on a search engine might be presented        with a socks-related ad, for which the advertiser is willing to        pay $0.50 if that person clicks on that ad. A person who visited        the mutual fund section of a site might be presented with a        mutual-fund related ad (wherever the person is found, i.e.,        either on the same site or on other sites), in which case the        advertiser is willing to pay $25 for every thousand ads (CPM)        presented to people who visited that mutual fund section.    -   (3) The same person might have several profile attributes in his        or her profile (as a result, for example, of that person        conducting several different searches and visiting different        sites). Different advertisers might be willing to pay different        amounts for delivering ads to the person based on the specific        profile attribute or attributes that the respective advertisers        are looking to target.

In summary, the cost of ad space at a second media property might not becovered by revenues generated for a BT company buying the space, i.e.,from an ad delivered within the second media property ad space based ona profile collected in a first media property or properties.Alternatively, the revenues might cover the media cost but not deliversatisfactory margins to the BT company, when taking into account othercosts, such as ad sales people cost, ad serving cost etc.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to various aspects of the invention, therefore, an automaticsystem is described to facilitate selection of media properties on whichto display an advertisement, responsive to a profile collected on afirst media property, where a BT company calculates expected profit foran ad correlated with the profile and arranges for the visitor to betagged with a tag readable by the selected media property.

The profit can be calculated by deducting, from the revenues that areexpected to be generated from an ad delivered based on the collectedprofile, at least the price of ad space at a media property where the BTcompany might like to deliver ads to the profiled visitor. When thecalculated profit is positive (i.e., not a loss), the BT companyarranges for the visitor to be tagged with a tag readable by theselected media property through which the BT company expects to profit.

The above summary does not include an exhaustive list of all aspects ofthe present invention, Indeed, the inventor contemplates that theinvention may include all systems and methods that can be practices fromall suitable combinations of the various aspects summarized above, aswell as those disclosed in the detailed description below andparticularly pointed out in the claims filed with the application. Suchcombinations have particular advantages not specifically recited in theabove summary.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a profit-basedselection method.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an exemplary embodiment of a profit-basedselection method.

FIG. 3 is a schematic of an exemplary embodiment of entities andassociated equipment used with a profit-based selection method.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Referring to the embodiment of FIG. 1 , responsive to receiving (1000)profile information (e.g., actions) of an electronic visitor withrespect to a first media property, the instant method includes (i)determining (2000) anticipated revenues and/or profit resulting fromplacing an advertisement targeted to the visitor based on the receivedprofile, and (ii) automatically selecting (3000) at least one mediaproperty for which it is anticipated that there will be a positiveprofit in delivering an ad to the profiled visitor. The method includes,via an electronic communications media, for each of the selected mediaproperties, arranging (4000) for electronic storage of a tag readable bysaid media property, wherein the tag is associated with the visitor.

Profit can be defined as:

-   -   (1) revenues expected to be generated, from an ad delivered        based on the collected profile, minus the ad space cost at a        specific media property (i.e., Pr=Rev (profile)−P (mp), where        “Pr” is profit, “Rev” is revenue generated from advertising to a        visitor with a particular profile, and “P” is the price charged        by media property “mp” for advertising in an ad space);    -   (2) revenues expected to be generated, from an ad delivered        based on the collected profile, minus the sum of (a) the price        for buying ad space on the specific media property, (b) ad        serving cost, (c) ad sales associated cost, and (d) desired        profit margin (i.e., Pr=Rev(profile)−P(mp)−C−Mar, where “C”        represents costs and “Mar” represents desired profit margin), or    -   (3) in other ways.

If the calculated profit indicates that the BT company will lose(negative profit) from delivering an ad, based on the received profileon any of the possible media properties where it is buying ad space, theBT company won't arrange for the visitor to be tagged by a tag readableby any of those media properties, and the BT company might even decidenot to collect the profile (so the visitor's profile will not bestored). Using the equation defining profit in item (2) just above, thequestion of whether the profit is positive or negative, as stated inthis paragraph, equates to testing (4) whetherRev(profile)−P(mp)−C−Mar>0, which is the same as (5) whetherRev(profile)−P(mp)−C>Mar, or (6) whether Rev(profile)>P(mp)+C+Mar, or(7) whether P(mp)<Rev(profile)−C−Mar. Grouping the terms on theright-hand side of the equation in item (7) reduces that equation to thesame as testing whether the price charged by a media property is lessthan a price cap, with the price cap being defined as the differencedetermined by subtracting from the revenue generated from advertising toa visitor with a particular profile a selected amount, here defined bythe costs and desired profit margin.

Likewise, using the equation defining profit in item (1) just above, thequestion of whether the profit is positive or negative equates totesting (8) whether Rev(profile)−P(mp)>0, which equates to testing (9)whether P(mp)<Rev(profile), which again is the same as testing whetherthe price charged by a media property is less than a price cap, with theprice cap being defined in this instance simply as the available revenuegenerated from advertising to a visitor with a particular profile.

The method includes the following basic steps, shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 :

-   -   1. A profile supplier 20 redirects (100) a visitor 10 to a BT        company 30 along with the visitor's profile. In case the profile        supplier 20 is also the BT company 30, this step either does not        take place or takes place internally, for example via an        internal redirect from one server to another server operating        under the same domain that belongs to the publisher/ST Company.        In case the BT company 30 has software on a user's computer 11        that enables it to monitor the user's visits to media properties        (e.g., 20, 40, 50) without the cooperation of the media        properties, this step either does not take place or takes place        internally, e.g., by the software on the user's computer        communicating the collected profile to the BT company's central        server.    -   2. The BT company 30 recognizes (200) the content read by the        user 10, the category to which the content read by the user 10        belongs, the keyword searched for by the user 10, an ad clicked        by the user 10, or any other action conducted on the page/site        20 by the user 10 (such as click on an item of content or an ad,        purchase of a product, request for more information, etc) during        the site visit (110). The recognizing might be as simple as        pulling a keyword for which the visitor 10 searched from a URL        used by the profile supplier 20 to redirect the visitor 10 to        the BT company 30, for example.    -   3. The BT company 30 optionally can categorize (300) specific        content read by the user 10, or an action conducted by a user        10. An example action might be a search for a keyword. To        illustrate, suppose a person searched for an airline ticket to        Florida on a travel site. When the BT company 30 receives that        information, in addition to recording the search for the flight        to Florida in the visitor's profile (whether the profile is        stored in the cookie or tag, the BT company's central database        31, or both of those places), the BT company 30 may further        categorize the person under the “Travel” category and in the        “Search for Flights” subcategory of “Travel.”    -   4. The BT company 30 calculates (400) expected revenues from        delivering ads based on the collected profile (Rev(profile) in        the equations above). The revenues are calculated based on the        kind of collected profile: (a) Expected revenues from content        read by the visitor 10 can be calculated by checking, for        example, how much advertisers are willing to pay for delivering        ads to visitors who read specific content. (b) Expected revenues        from delivering ads based on a keyword searched by the visitor        10 can be calculated by checking, for example, how much        advertisers are willing to pay for each click on an ad related        to the keyword for which the visitor searched and multiplying        that price per click by an assumed click-through rate on ads        related to the searched-for keyword, up to 14 days after the        visitor's search. In general, expected revenues can be        calculated for the delivery of ads based on a category of        content read by the visitor 10, for specific content read by the        visitor 10, or for action taken by the visitor 10 (e.g., made a        phone call, clicked an ad, clicked specific content, asked for        information, acquired product, etc.).    -   5. The BT company 30 selects (500) media properties (e.g., 40)        for the delivery of an advertisement based on a profile        collected on a first media property 20. The BT company 30 makes        the selection based on a calculated expected profit and then        arranges for the visitor 10 to be tagged (610 or 620) with a tag        readable by the selected media property 40. The profit is        calculated in any of the alternative manners stated above.

The BT company's arranging placement of the tag can be achieved indifferent ways:

-   -   A. The BT company 30 can redirect (630) a visitor to the        selected media property 40, 50 with a request to have the        selected media property 40, 50 tag (620) the visitor with the        media property's own tag, which obviously is readable by the        selected media property 40, 50 (such a tag could be a cookie on        the visitor's storage device 12).    -   B. The BT company 30 can itself place (610) a tag that will be        readable by the selected media property 40.    -   C. The BT company 30 can place an encoded tag that, although        accessible by any media property (e.g., 40, 50), can be read        only by a selected media property 40 to which the BT company        gave a deciphering code.    -   D. In cases when the BT company 30 has software installed on a        user's computer 10, the BT company 30 can arrange for the        software to place (not shown) a tag readable by the selected        media property 40 (such a tag could be a cookie operating under        the selected media property domain).    -   E. The BT company 30 can arrange for the selected media property        40 to place a tag in the selected media property's central        database 41, in which case the tag can uniquely identify (1) the        device 11 that the visitor 10 will use to access the selected        media (IP address, set-top box ID, mobile phone number,        manufacturer serial number, cookie readable by the selected        media property, etc.), or (2) the user as a person (personal        identifiable information).

When a selected media property 40 recognizes a tagged visitor 10 (taggedpreviously, at time t1) later (at time t2) visiting (710) its ad space,the media property 40 will arrange for the BT company 30 to serve an ad(720) to the visitor 10 (which will appear with the media content (730)requested by the visitor), by redirecting (700) a visitor to the BTcompany 30, for example.

The media properties can be of the same kind of media (e.g., two websites 40, 60 on the Internet 80) or of different media (e.g., firstmedia property can be a web site 40 on the Internet 80, and the secondmedia property can be a TV channel on TV or a text message system on amobile phone, etc.). In the case (not shown) where the second mediaproperty operates within a different media than the first media, thetagging of the visitor with a tag readable by the second media property(which is arranged by the BT company 30) might include finding thedevice used by the visitor 10 to access the second media by usingpersonal identifiable information about the visitor 10. As there may beno connection between the device used by the visitor to access the firstmedia property (computer 11, for example) and the device used by thevisitor to access the second media property (TV, for example) besidesthe commonality of the user (visitor) 10, personal identifiableinformation about the visitor 10 could be used to allow the second mediaproperty to learn which device the visitor 10 uses to access the secondmedia property and tag the visitor 10. The second media property couldtag the device used by the visitor 10 to access the second mediaproperty (by placing a tag on the device itself or in a central databaseof the second media property, for example).

Although the BT company 30 stores the visitor's collected profile, inthe above-described implementation it does not transfer the collectedprofile to the second media property 40, 50 but simply asks the secondmedia property 40, 50 to tag the visitor as a BT company visitor orarrange for a tag to be placed (620) that is readable by the secondmedia property 40 and that marks the visitor as a BT company visitor. Asthe BT company 30 buys ad space from the proprietor of the second mediaproperty 40 and delivers therein an ad based on the collected profile,the BT company 30 has no economic incentive to transfer the profileinformation itself (such as the fact that the visitor searched for “carinsurance”) to the second media property 40. The second media company'sproprietor is being paid for the ad space and therefore just needs toknow that the visitor 10 has been profiled by the BT company 30, whichwill pay the second media property's proprietor for an opportunity todeliver an ad to this visitor 10 within the ad space of the second mediaproperty 40.

Suppose, for example, a person searches for “mortgage” on Google (Googleis a BT company 30 in this example). Using the method above, Googlecalculates that advertisers are willing to pay $3 per click on amortgage-related ad, that the expected click-through on amortgage-related ad is 0.3%, and therefore Google will earn $9 for everythousand mortgage-related ads delivered to people that searched for“mortgage” on Google when those people are found later, anywhere on theweb (i.e., this is “Rev(profile)”). Google further knows that it costsGoogle $3 CPM to deliver a thousand ads on weather.com (i.e., “P(mp)”)to computers that were tagged by weather.com as Google visitors. Googletherefore can calculate a profit of $6 CPM (without taking into accountother costs, i.e., “C”) for delivering a thousand mortgage-related adsto Google visitors who searched for “mortgage” on Google when foundlater within the ad space of weather.com. Google will therefore arrangefor weather.com to tag the person who searched for “mortgage” on Googleas a Google visitor (by redirecting the visitor to weather.com with therequest to tag the person as a Google visitor, for example).

In the case where a second media property controls ad space with pricesthat fall within a range, the BT company 30—in addition to arranging forthe second media property (e.g., 50) to tag (620) its visitor—may alsoprovide the second media property 50 with the price the BT company 30 iswilling to pay the second media property 50 for delivering an ad withinthe second media property's ad space. In FIG. 3 , second media property50 is shown as an ad network's site (where the ad network represents thead space of different sites, 60, 61), as described above. The pricedelivered from the BT company 30 enables the second media property 50 todetermine which ad space it should allocate to the BT company 30 whenthe tagged visitor 10 visits the second media property 50. Although someof the ad space (e.g., on site 60) might be too expensive, i.e., abovethe cap defined by the price the BT company 30 is willing to pay, otherad space (e.g., on site 61) might have a cost that would be covered bythe price the BT company 30 is willing to pay. However, obviously, theBT company 30 will not arrange for tag placement if the price it iswilling to pay for delivering an ad to the profiled visitor 10 is lessthan the lowest price demanded by a second media property 50 fordelivering an ad within that ad space, i.e., price cap<min[P(mp)].

Given that some kind of profiles such as behavioral profiles aretime-sensitive (in other words, their value diminishes with time), theBT company 30—in addition to arranging the placement of a tag readableby the second media property 40, 50—may also provide the second mediaproperty 40, 50 (via the tag, for example) with a time period withinwhich the BT company 30 will agree to deliver ads to the profiledvisitor 10 within the ad space of the second media property 40, 50.Suppose, for example, a BT company 30 collected a profile of a visitor10 who searched for “flowers.” The BT company 30 might arrange for thevisitor 10 to be tagged with a tag, readable by a second media property40, marking the visitor 10 as the BT company's visitor and setting atime limit of two days, which means that the second media property 40can call upon the BT company 30 to serve an ad to the tagged visitor 10only when the visitor 10 is found within the second media property's adspace up to two days after the visitor 10 was tagged (the tag may have atime stamp identifying the date and time the tag was placed to help thesecond media property 40 calculate the date before which the secondmedia property 40 can call upon the BT company 30 to serve an ad).

The calculation that takes place in steps 4 and 5 of the above-describedmethod may take place not at the time of profile collection as describedabove but beforehand. Conducting the calculation before the profile iscollected can shorten the time it takes the server 30 to select themedia properties. The calculation might be done beforehand for otherreasons.

Specifically, step 4 (which states that the BT company 30 calculates theexpected revenues from delivering ads based on the collected profile,where the revenues are calculated based on the kind of collectedprofile, i.e., “Rev(profile)”) may take place in advance. If forexample, a collected profile describes the content read by a visitor,then, if other profiles were previously collected of the same kind ofprofile, there is no need to check how much advertisers are willing topay for delivering ads, as it was already checked for profiles of thesame kind.

The word “calculating” expected revenues can encompass a scenario inwhich there are no arithmetic calculations, but rather simply an act oflocating the correct information. In this example, the informationconcerning how much advertisers are willing to pay for delivering theirads to visitors 10 that read a specific content is located, and noarithmetic calculation is needed.

For another example, if the expected revenues for delivering an ad forsomeone who searched for “mortgage” has recently been calculated, thenthere is no need to calculate it again, and the information can simplybe located.

Although the examples describe calculation of revenues from deliveringan ad at a media property 40, 50, depending on the method of payment forthe media property, different calculations of expected revenues can takeplace.

If the media property only gets paid for when a visitor visiting ittakes action, then the revenues per profile-based ad delivery shouldalso be based on an action. Such a visitor action can be a click on anad, a request for information from the advertiser (following a click onthe ad), a registration with the advertiser, an act of buying a productor service from the advertiser, etc.

For example, if the media property 40 is paid at the rate of $0.40 perclick on an ad presented to the media property's visitor, the BT company30 will check how much the advertiser will pay the BT company 30 pervisitor click when viewing an ad based on the collected profile. If theprice per click paid by the advertiser at least exceeds the price perclick paid for the media property, then the BT company 30 can arrangefor the tagging of the visitor 10 with a tag readable by the selectedmedia property (the one that will cost $0.40 per click).

In some scenarios, the BT company 30 might be paid for every addelivered to a visitor, but the media property might trigger payment forevery visitor click on an ad. Conversely, the BT company 30 might bepaid for a visitor click on an ad, but the media property might triggerpayment for every delivered ad regardless of whether a click took placeor not. In those scenarios, so as not to expose itself to the risk ofloss, the BT company 30 preferably translates the payment it receives(whether per ad delivery or ad click or per action) to the paymentmethod applied to the media property. For example, if the BT company 30is paid $0.25 per click on an ad by a visitor who searched for a “DVD”but a media property triggers payment for every ad delivery at $0.50 CPM(regardless of whether a click took place), the BT company 30 cantranslate the payment per click it receives to payment for ad delivery.In this example, the BT company 30 can calculate that, with an expectedclick-through of 0.4% on DVD-related ads by people who searched for“DVD” up to seven days before they are presented with an ad, the BTcompany 30 will generate $1 CPM (0.4% CTR*1,000 ads*$0.25 per click=$1),i.e., Rev(profile)≈$1 CPM. Because $1 CPM is more than the $0.50 cost ofthe media property (i.e., Rev(profile)>P(mp)), the BT company 30 willmake a gross profit of $0.50 CPM and therefore (assuming costs are lowor ignored) arrange for tag placement.

Likewise with respect to step 5 (which states that the BT company 30selects media properties for delivery of an advertisement based on aprofile collected on a first media property where the selection is madeby the BT company 30 based on a calculated expected profit), thecalculation on which the media property selection is based could be acalculation done beforehand. If the collected profile is of the samekind as another profile that was collected recently (for example, bothprofiles describe “searching for flights”) then the informationconcerning how much revenues would be generated from such a profile isalready available, and there is no need to recalculate. Also, the profithas also been calculated, because the cost of ad space at the differentmedia properties probably does not change in a short period of time. Alook-up table can be used that lists, based on the kind of profile, themedia properties that should be selected. In such a scenario, the stepsof the method will be:

-   -   1. The BT company 30 calculates expected revenues from        delivering ads based on different collected profiles.    -   2. The BT company 30 calculates expected profits (or losses) for        the delivery of ads based on different collected profiles within        the ad space of different available media properties 40, 50.    -   3. The BT company 30 builds a table wherein each kind of profile        is assigned media properties where ads will be delivered based        on the profile, and wherein the selection of media properties is        made based on the previously calculated profit. The table is        updated on a regular basis to make sure it is up to date.    -   4. The BT company 30 collects a profile.    -   5. The BT company 30 arranges for placement of a tag readable by        a selected media property, where the selected media properties        are taken from the table described in step 3 above.

The above is just one possible implementation. Instead of a table, adatabase or any other data structure can be used. The calculation couldbe done entirely in advance, entirely when the profile is collected, ora combination wherein some of the calculation is done in advance andsome when the profile is collected.

Accordingly, the method can be described in the following more generalsteps:

-   -   1. The BT company 30 collects a profile.    -   2. The BT company 30 arranges (610, 620) for a tag (readable by        a selected media property 40, 50, or both) to be placed, where        the media property is selected based on the expected profit from        the delivery of an ad (720) based on the collected profile        within the ad space of the media property.

Although the above method focuses on profit calculation that takes intoaccount expected revenues from delivery of an ad based on a collectedprofile, media property ad space cost and other costs, other parametersbeyond costs and revenues might be taken into account. For example, anadvertiser might insist that its ads appear on media properties thathave certain content and not on other media properties, a media propertymight not agree to show ads from a certain category (for example, asports media property might not agree to show sports-related ads, toavoid promoting competitors), etc.

PUBLIC NOTICE REGARDING THE SCOPE OF THE INVENTION AND CLAIMS

The inventor considers various elements of the aspects and methodsrecited in the claims filed with the application as advantageous,perhaps even critical to certain implementations of the invention.However, the inventor regards no particular element as being“essential,” except as set forth expressly in any particular claim.

Although the invention has been described in terms of preferredembodiments and generally associated methods, the inventor contemplatesthat alterations and permutations of the preferred embodiments andmethods will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a readingof the specification and a study of the drawings.

I claim:
 1. A computer system controlled by a behavioral targeting (BT)company comprised of one or more computers, which computer system isstructured and programmed to perform a method of directing electronicadvertisements, the method comprising: for each of a multitude ofvisitor computers of different visitors visiting a first website,automatically with the computer system: (a) at a first time, redirectingthe visitor computer to an ad network computer controlling advertisingspace on at least one third party media property, wherein the ad networkcomputer cannot obtain access to any profile information related to thevisitor as a result of the redirecting; (b) wherein, as a result of theact of redirecting the visitor computer, the ad network arranges toelectronically tag the visitor computer, which tag is readable bycomputers within a domain of the ad network and identifies the visitorcomputer as associated with the BT company; (c) recording, in a profileof the visitor maintained by the BT company, profile informationcollected during the visitor computer's visit to the first site; (d)providing the ad network with a price cap that the BT company is willingto pay the ad network for allowing delivery of an advertisement withinmedia property advertising space controlled by the ad network; and (e)at a second time, later than the first time, upon receiving anelectronic request from the ad network, causing a selected advertisementto be served to the visitor computer while the visitor computer isvisiting one of the media properties that has ad space controlled by thead network, which advertisement is based on profile information in theprofile of the visitor maintained by the BT company, in exchange for aprice not above the price cap.
 2. The system of claim 1 furthercomprising a storage containing visitor profile information and whereinthe method performed by the system further comprises selecting anadvertisement based on at least some of the visitor profile informationin the storage.
 3. The system of claim 1 wherein, in the methodperformed by the system, the act in part (e) of causing a selectedadvertisement to be served to the visitor computer while the visitorcomputer is visiting one of the media properties comprises serving theselected advertisement to the visitor computer.
 4. A computer systemcontrolled by a behavioral targeting company (BT company), whichcomputer system (BT computer system) is comprised of one or morecomputers and is structured and programmed to perform a method ofdirecting electronic advertisements, the method comprising:automatically with the BT computer system: (a) at a first time,arranging for a third party computer system controlling advertisingspace on a plurality of third party media properties to electronicallytag a first computer of a first visitor visiting a first website, whichtag is readable by computers operating under a domain of the third partycomputer system and identifies the visitor computer as associated withthe BT company, wherein the third party computer system cannot obtainaccess to any profile information related to the first visitor as aresult of the arranging for the third party computer system toelectronically tag the first computer; (b) recording, in a profile ofthe first visitor maintained by the BT computer system, profileinformation collected during the first computer's visit to the firstwebsite; (c) electronically transferring to the third party computersystem a price cap that the BT company is willing to pay for allowingdelivery of an advertisement within media property advertising spacecontrolled by the third party computer system controlling advertisingspace on the plurality of third party media properties; and (d) at asecond time, later than the first time, upon receiving a redirection ofthe first computer while the first computer is visiting one of theplurality of third party media properties, causing a selectedadvertisement to be served to the first computer, which advertisement isbased on the profile information collected during the first computer'svisit to the first website, which profile information is in the profileof the first visitor maintained by the BT computer system, in exchangefor a price less than the price cap.
 5. The system of claim 4 furthercomprising a storage containing visitor profile information and whereinthe method performed by the system further comprises selecting anadvertisement based on at least some of the visitor profile informationin the storage.
 6. The system of claim 4 wherein, in the methodperformed by the system, the act in part (d) of causing a selectedadvertisement to be served to the first computer comprises serving theselected advertisement to the first computer.
 7. A computer systemcomprised of one or more computers, which computer system is a firstcomputer system controlled by a first entity and is programmed andconnected to automatically: (a) at a first time, triggered by a visit ofa first visitor computerized device to a first website, cause a secondcomputer system not controlled by the first entity, which secondcomputer system controls advertising space on a plurality of mediaproperties not controlled by the first entity at the first time, toelectronically tag the first visitor computerized device, which tag isreadable by computers operating under a domain of the second computersystem and electronically marks the first visitor computerized device asa device of a visitor for which the first entity has profileinformation, wherein the second computer system cannot obtain access toany profile information related to the first visitor computerizeddevice, as a result of the causing the second computer system toelectronically tag the first visitor computerized device; (b) record, ina first profile associated with the first visitor computerized devicemaintained by the first computer system, profile information collectedduring the visit of the first visitor computerized device to the firstwebsite; (c) electronically transfer to the second computer system acondition specific to the first visitor computerized device for allowingdelivery of an advertisement to the first visitor computerized devicewithin media property advertising space controlled by the secondcomputer system; and (d) at a second time, later than the first time,upon receiving a redirection of the first visitor computerized devicewhile the first visitor computerized device is visiting one of theplurality of media properties, which redirection is received followingthe second computer system checking the condition and determining thatthe condition is met, cause a selected advertisement to be served to thefirst visitor computerized device, which advertisement is based on theprofile information collected during the visit of the first visitorcomputerized device to the first website, which profile information isin the profile related to the first visitor computerized devicemaintained by the first computer system.
 8. The system of claim 7wherein the first computer system is further structured and programmedto select an advertisement based on profile information from the profilerelated to the first visitor computerized device maintained by the firstcomputer system.
 9. The system of claim 7 wherein, in part (d), thefirst computer system being structured and programmed to cause aselected advertisement to be served to the first visitor computerizeddevice comprises the first computer system being further structured andprogrammed to serve the selected advertisement to the first visitorcomputerized device.
 10. A computer system comprised of one or morecomputers, which computer system is a first computer system controlledby a first entity and is programmed and connected to automatically: (a)at a first time, triggered by a visit of a first visitor computerizeddevice to a first website, causing a second computer system notcontrolled by the first entity, which second computer system controlsadvertising space on a plurality of second websites not controlled bythe first entity at the first time, to electronically tag the firstvisitor computerized device, which tag is readable by computersoperating under a domain of the second computer system andelectronically marks the first visitor computerized device as a deviceof a visitor for which the first entity has profile information, whereinthe second computer system cannot obtain access to any profileinformation related to the first visitor computerized device, as aresult of the causing the second computer system to electronically tagthe first visitor computerized device; (b) record, in a first profileassociated with the first visitor computerized device maintained by thefirst computer system, profile information collected during the visit ofthe first visitor computerized device to the first website; (c)electronically transfer to the second computer system a conditionspecific to the first visitor computerized device for allowing deliveryof an advertisement to the first visitor computerized device withinadvertising space controlled by the second computer system on one of thesecond websites; and (d) at a second time, later than the first time,upon receiving a redirection of the first visitor computerized devicewhile the first visitor computerized device is visiting the one of thesecond websites, which redirection is received following the secondcomputer system checking the condition and determining that thecondition is met, cause a selected advertisement to be served to thefirst visitor computerized device, which advertisement is based on theprofile information collected during the visit of the first visitorcomputerized device to the first website, which profile information isin the profile related to the first visitor computerized devicemaintained by the first computer system.
 11. The system of claim 10wherein the first computer system is further programmed and connected toselect an advertisement based on profile information from the profilerelated to the first visitor computerized device maintained by the firstcomputer system.
 12. The system of claim 10 wherein, in part (d), thefirst computer system being structured and programmed to cause aselected advertisement to be served to the first visitor computerizeddevice comprises the first computer system being further programmed andconnected to serve the selected advertisement to the first visitorcomputerized device.
 13. A computer system comprised of one or morecomputers, which computer system is a first computer system controlledby a first entity and is programmed and connected: (a) to record, in afirst profile associated with a first computerized device, which firstprofile is maintained by the first computer system, behavioral profileinformation collected during a visit of the first computerized device toa first website; (b) at a first time, triggered by the visit of a firstcomputerized device to the first website, to cause a second computersystem not controlled by the first entity, which second computer systemcontrols advertising space in a plurality of video streams, whichadvertising space is not controlled by the first entity at the firsttime, to electronically have access to tag information, which taginformation denotes to the second computer system a connection between(i) the first profile; and (ii) a second computerized device used toaccess video streams, wherein the second computer system cannot obtainaccess to any profile information in the first profile collected duringthe visit of the first computerized device to the first website, as aresult of the causing the second computer system to have access to thetag information; (c) to electronically transfer to the second computersystem a condition specific to the first profile for allowing deliveryof an advertisement to the second computerized device within advertisingspace controlled by the second computer system in one of the pluralityof video streams; and (d) at a second time, later than the first time,while the second computerized device is causing display of the one ofthe plurality of video streams, following the second computer systemchecking the condition and determining that the condition is met, tocause a selected advertisement to be served in the one of the pluralityof video streams, which advertisement is based on the profileinformation collected during the visit of the first computerized deviceto the first website, which profile information is in the first profilethat is associated with the first computerized device and maintained bythe first computer system.
 14. The system of claim 13 wherein the firstcomputer system is further programmed and connected to automaticallyselect the selected advertisement.
 15. The system of claim 13 whereinthe first computer system is further programmed and connected to, at thefirst time, automatically select the second computer system from among aplurality of computer systems controlled by different entities.
 16. Acomputer system comprised of one or more computers, which computersystem is a first computer system controlled by a first entity and isprogrammed and connected to automatically: (a) at a first time,triggered by a visit of a first visitor computerized device to a firstwebsite, send a tag to a second computer system not controlled by thefirst entity, which second computer system controls advertising space ona plurality of second websites not controlled by the first entity at thefirst time, which tag is readable by computers operating under a domainof the second computer system and contains information usable by saidcomputers to electronically mark, in a database of the second computersystem, the first visitor computerized device as a device of a visitorfor which the first entity has profile information, wherein the secondcomputer system cannot obtain access to any profile information relatedto the first visitor computerized device as a result of the sending ofthe tag; (b) record, in a first profile associated with the firstvisitor computerized device maintained by the first computer system,profile information collected during the visit of the first visitorcomputerized device to the first website; (c) electronically transfer tothe second computer system a condition specific to the first visitorcomputerized device for allowing delivery of an advertisement to thefirst visitor computerized device within advertising space controlled bythe second computer system on one of the second websites; and (d) at asecond time, later than the first time, upon receiving a redirection ofthe first visitor computerized device while the first visitorcomputerized device is visiting the one of the second websites, whichredirection is received following the second computer system checkingthe condition and determining that the condition is met, cause aselected advertisement to be served to the first visitor computerizeddevice, which advertisement is based on the profile informationcollected during the visit of the first visitor computerized device tothe first website, which profile information is in the profile relatedto the first visitor computerized device maintained by the firstcomputer system.
 17. The system of claim 16 wherein the first computersystem is further programmed and connected to select an advertisementbased on profile information from the profile related to the firstvisitor computerized device maintained by the first computer system. 18.The system of claim 16 wherein, in part (d), the first computer systembeing structured and programmed to cause a selected advertisement to beserved to the first visitor computerized device comprises the firstcomputer system being further programmed and connected to serve theselected advertisement to the first visitor computerized device.
 19. Acomputer system comprised of one or more computers, which computersystem is a first computer system controlled by a first entity and isprogrammed and connected to automatically: (a) record, in a firstprofile associated with a first computerized device, which first profileis maintained by the first computer system, behavioral profileinformation collected by software on the first computerized devicerelating to actions performed by a user using the first computerizeddevice; (b) use personally identifiable information about the user toidentify a second computerized device of the user; (c) at a first time,cause a second computer system not controlled by the first entity, whichsecond computer system controls advertising space in a plurality ofvideo streams, which advertising space is not controlled by the firstentity at the first time, to electronically have access to taginformation, which tag information denotes to the second computer systemthat the first entity has profile information about the user of thesecond computerized device, wherein the second computer system cannotobtain access to any profile information of the first entity related tothe user as a result of the causing the second computer system to haveaccess to the tag information; (d) electronically transfer to the secondcomputer system a condition specific to the first profile for allowingdelivery of an advertisement; and (e) at a second time, later than thefirst time, while the second computerized device is being used todisplay one of the plurality of video streams, following the secondcomputer system checking the condition and determining that thecondition is met, cause a selected advertisement to be served in the oneof the plurality of video streams, which advertisement is based on theprofile information collected by the software, which profile informationis in the first profile that is associated with the first computerizeddevice and maintained by the first computer system.
 20. The computersystem of claim 19 wherein the first computer system is furtherprogrammed and connected to automatically select the selectedadvertisement.
 21. The computer system of claim 19 wherein the firstcomputer system is further programmed and connected to automatically, atthe first time, select the second computer system from among a pluralityof computer systems controlled by different entities.
 22. The computersystem of claim 19 wherein the first computer system is furtherprogrammed and connected to automatically categorize the actionperformed using the first computerized device.